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Philosophy/religion

Join our Philosophy forum to discuss religion and spirituality.

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Original poster

Where are you before you are conceived?

21 replies

LynetteScavo · 28/03/2009 19:08

DD (3yo) wants to know.

DS1 told her "In Daddy's testicles" (que lots of laugter from DS1 and DS2)

I've always thought you were in heaven before you are concived, as well as after you die, but I've no idea where I got that from.

OP posts:

cornsilk · 28/03/2009 19:10

LOL at your ds1!

Original poster

LynetteScavo · 28/03/2009 19:32

But Cornsilk - do you have the answer? DD wants to know!

OP posts:

RemindMe · 28/03/2009 19:58

You're a twinkle in your Mummy's eye.

pinkspottywellies · 28/03/2009 20:01

I don't know, heaven I guess. Just wanted to add that my mum believes that you choose your parents. I think that's quite nice

Tarenath · 28/03/2009 22:21

Floating around the universe waiting for mummy and daddy to make a baby?

TheMoistWorldOfSeptimusQuench · 28/03/2009 22:24

I think that's a quite disturbing idea (choosing parents), pinkspotty

BUT, this is a very interesting question that I would like to know the answer to.

MeAndB · 29/03/2009 12:17

I would agree with your son, we all come from an egg and a sperm....sorry but I dont believe there is anything before conception.

Rhubarb · 29/03/2009 12:17

Down the pub.

Lawks · 29/03/2009 12:22

On a cloud?

AMumInScotland · 29/03/2009 20:23

I think the RC church teaches that God creates a soul for each baby at conception (or possibly a little after?). But that's not a specific belief of other Christian denominations. Personally, I believe that the soul is an emergent property - it comes out from being a separate self-aware person, so doesn't exist before you are conceived, and doesn't have to be "attached" to you by God. So you aren't anywhere, until the egg meets the sperm, because you can't exist as a separate person until you have the cvomplete set of chromosomes that makes up "you". But not sure how I'd begin to explain that to a three-year-old

onagar · 30/03/2009 23:37

Mormons believe that you are in heaven before birth. They often quote Wordsworth's 'Intimations of Immortality'

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

As an atheist I don't believe it, but I quite like the poetry.

solidgoldbrass · 30/03/2009 23:52

Not there. You're just... not. Same as when you die.

Hobnobfanatic · 31/03/2009 00:05

You come from that to which you will return.

Or summat...

hobbgoblin · 31/03/2009 00:11

same pov as solid. Not v romantic but there you go.

Pinkfluffyslippers · 02/04/2009 08:50

When DD was a baby I made up this daft story that before she was born she was in the Baby Garden in heaven. I think of it as containing a row of little cabbage like babies! Then God came to the baby garden and said," Who wants to make a mummy very happy?" Up popped DD's hand and she went " I do". So God picked her up and gave her the kiss of life, and popped her on the baby train and she ended up in my tummy. (Yes, I know it sounds bonkers but she loves the story). Then, when we die we go to heaven and go back to the baby garden and start again.

However, I like your DS's reply. At some point the biology has got to be weaved into my story. I will probably end up with a v confused kid but hey, it'll give her something to tell her therapist when she's grown up!!!

sgrant · 05/04/2009 15:54

You don't exist, simple as.

SparklingSarah · 04/05/2009 09:21

I told mine a star in the sky waiting for mummy and daddy to meet

Martha200 · 10/05/2009 22:46

Pinkspotty - I think, though not 100% sure the idea of choosing our parents can also be found in Buddhism, and no matter the parents people pick, they have been picked for a reason.

I had a friend once who was a firm believer in choosing his parents, which I always found a bit hard because his Dad was awful, yet with age and experience he was able to move on from it. That thought, of choosing the parents always popped into my head not long after I gave birth and I wondered what lessons etc we would share with each other.

Ds, (6) had a spell of thinking he was very clever because he managed to be in two places ie the sperm and an egg!

mommybuddy · 11/05/2009 19:03

The Catholic idea "that God creates a soul for each baby at conception" originated with Aristotle and crept into Biblical teachings through the Scholastics in the Middle Ages.

I've always found the typical religious beliefs to be selfish and egoistical, with life after death and all that because they don't want to die, so they are attracted to some heaven of pleasures they get into by doing and believing certain things.

But pre-existence seems like something more selfless, that we come to earth from heaven in order to improve ourselves and learn. If that's the case, which is indeed an intriguing idea, it would make sense that we already know those who are close to us, it's in the very word "re-cognition". We don't say we cognize somebody, but that we recognize somebody even if we haven't met before in this life.

Fascinating topic.

isenhart7 · 13/05/2009 03:45

"Heaven only knows and heaven rarely says."

StripeyOss · 15/05/2009 10:03

Busy bein someone elses Guardian 'Angel'

I believe very strongly in reincarnation.. i believe there are a finite number of souls and this earth and life is a learning process before we pass into where we're meant to be.

We are reborn over and over, each life different.. the purpose to learn everything there is to learn.

When we die in the flesh, our soul is set free, and until it is time to be born again we spend our time watching over and guiding the other souls through their own journeys.

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